U.N. peacekeepers fired warning shots and tear gas at protesters trying to breach the security walls of the world body's headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. In San Pedro, west of Abidjan, protesters hurled firebombs into a United Nations office, but no injuries were reported. A U.N. official accused the government of orchestrating the demonstrations. Protests began Monday after U.N.

In a significant defeat for liberal members of the new national assembly, the Congress of People's Deputies refused Friday to suspend a controversial law restricting political demonstrations here after crowds gathered outside the Kremlin wanting to meet their deputies. Although the liberals complained that the riot police had prevented people from meeting them as their elected representatives, conservatives voted to keep in force--even during the current session of the congress--legislation that bans unauthorized public gatherings.

Grass-roots groups dedicated to preserving the dwindling remnants of architectural history in their neighborhoods will gather this week to recommit themselves to their goals at the 14th annual California Preservation Conference at the Biltmore Hotel. The public is invited to special events that include all-day demonstrations of restoration techniques Friday and Saturday, and 19 neighborhood tours next Sunday. Award Presentation About 1,500 preservationists will participate in seminars on supportive federal legislation, local zoning practices and methods of organizing neighborhoods.

Even as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully in Hong Kong on Thursday, at least 30 protesters were detained by police in Beijing's Tiananmen Square for holding banners, kneeling before the national flag and handing out leaflets accusing the government of injustice.

February 26, 2008 | Rushdi abu Alouf and Richard Boudreaux, Special to The Times

As Israelis watched nervously from across the border, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip staged parallel protests Monday against the Jewish state, placing a few thousand placard-waving demonstrators along the main highway and firing 11 rockets into Israel. One of the rockets injured 10-year-old Yossi Haimov in the town of Sderot as an air-raid siren sent him and his 8-year-old sister, who were playing near their home, rushing for cover against a wall. Surgeons removed shrapnel from his right shoulder, saving his arm. Israel had braced for a day of far more trouble.

About 17,000 Israeli police officers Wednesday blocked an estimated 10,000 Jewish settlers and sympathizers from marching to a settlement in the Gaza Strip to protest the Israeli plan to withdraw from the territory. Both sides vowed to avoid violence in the confrontation on the road to the Gaza border from this southern Israeli town.

In an enormous, politically charged outpouring, tens of thousands of Italians marched through the capital Saturday demanding the freedom of a journalist kidnapped in Iraq. The demonstration, which ended at Circus Maximus, site of chariot races more than 2,000 years ago, was not attended by representatives of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.

sipson, england -- Heathrow is the granddaddy of European airport nightmares, legendary for its long lines and lost luggage. But the hundreds of protesters who descended on the airport's administrative headquarters Sunday weren't furious passengers demanding better service, but climate change activists seeking to block expansion of the beleaguered facility.

Followers of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr marched Monday south of Baghdad to protest the appointment of a provincial police chief they accuse of having links to a rival Shiite faction and to Saddam Hussein's ousted government. The demonstration in Hillah, capital of Babil province, underscored deep rivalries that threaten stability in the overwhelmingly Shiite south, generally one of the calmer parts of Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.